Techniques for voice-based user authentication for mobile access to network services

Abstract

Techniques for granting access on a network having a network service to a user of a mobile device having a microphone includes determining a first identification uniquely associated with a registered user having a registered voiceprint that matches a voiceprint of the user of the mobile device. A second identification uniquely associated with the mobile device is also determined. It is then determined whether to grant access based on the first identification and the second identification. If it is determined to grant access, access is granted on the network to the user. Various aspects of the invention allow a user to be authenticated separately of the mobile device by the voice of the user, and granted access to a network service based on both the user's identity and the identity of the mobile device. Both the user's voice and the device identity are provided using the current capabilities of wireless telephones. Obtaining the first identification and second identification within a specified time interval makes confidently practical the technique of verifying that a certain user controls a certain mobile device, and then allowing access by that device to protected services.

Description

FIELD OF INVENTION[0001]The present invention generally relates to accessing services on a network from a mobile device. The invention relates more specifically to providing access to the services based on voice recognition of a user of the mobile device.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]A corporation or other entity often provides services to its officers, employees, partners and customers that are not available to the general public. Many of these services are accessed through a network internal to the entity. The network is made up of several computing devices serving as terminals communicating through zero or more computing devices serving as network devices responsible for passing information among the terminals. For example, financial reports are available by running a network financial application on one computing device that employs data stored in a network database on another computing device. Often, a separate database server process, with which the financial application in...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0020]Various aspects of the invention allow a user to be authenticated separately of the mobile device by the voice of t

Problems solved by technology

To provide secure access to services on the internal network to users who have moved outside the secure facilities presents special problems.

The problems arise because of the use of public networks and the portability of the mobile devices serving as terminals.

However, the easy portability of such devices increases the chances that the device can fall outside the control of the authorized user through loss or theft.

The combination of public network paths and non-secure mobile devices makes secure access for services on the internal network a problem.

Such encryption is not secure if the terminal falls into the hands of an unauthorized person.

While suitable for many purposes, this approach suffers from several disadvantages.

For example, in practice, entering the one-time password is very cumbersome on voice-based mobile devices, such as wireless telephones, commonly carried by authorized users beyond secure facilities.

This places extra pressure on a user of this system, and increases the likelihood of error in entering random characters having no meaning to the user, and thus increases the likelihood of failing to obtain access.

For example, there are few standards for biometric sensors, so the logic to integrate biometric sensor output with the communication protocols depends on the sensor installed, and is thus cumbersome and expensive to produce.

In addition, the sensor data processing is likely to be computationally intensive, exceeding the resources typically available on the most portable devices such as wireless telephones.

Furthermore, hundreds of thousands of wireless telephones will be deployed in the next few years without such biometric sensors, and none of these deployed telephones would be able to employ such approaches.

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